The European concept of continental division has led to

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the question that follows.


The word “continent” actually meant mainland in the past, when the Greeks and Romans ruled the western world. The common view is that a big mass of land that is bigger than a single country and separated from other big masses of land either by sea, mountains or deserts should be a continent. However, a continent is defined upon the needs of a person. Historians divide the world into continents in a different manner. Geography teachers see it differently. Geologists see it from their own viewpoint and people of different countries divide the world into continents to suit their own purposes. There is quite a bit of confusion in the world over the number of continents, their names and their areas. For example, in Europe, they still believe the world to be divided into five continents as represented in the five rings of the Olympic flag. However, Americans divide the Earth’s land mass into seven continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica, for such division is the most reasonable and easiest for studying the world.